The horrific discovery of a newborn girl’s body in the bushes at a town centre park has prompted a murder enquiry.

The baby girl, known only as Baby M, had multiple blunt force injuries to her head, Hampshire police said.

A member of the local council staff stumbled upon the body in Manor Park in Aldershot, Hampshire, at 1.30pm on May 19, 2017.

Police are now asking the public for help identifying a couple in a CCTV video who they believe could be connected with the baby’s birth and murder.

The baby died within a maximum six hours after birth and along with the multiple head injuries, had minor injuries to her body, according to a post-mortem examination.

The body of a newborn girl, who has been named as Baby M by officers, was discovered at the edge of the park, by a member of local council staff (Image: Hampshire Police/PA Wire)

Hunt for two passers-by

Detective Chief Inspector Dave Storey, of Hampshire police, said scientific analysis by the National History Museum identified that the birth would most likely have happened between 6pm on May 15 and 8am the following day.

He said this led to a review of CCTV footage which found images of two people walking past the birth scene in Ash Road 10 times between 11.30pm on May 15 and 12.30am on May 16.

Mr Storey added that a DNA profile taken from the baby showed that both she and her mother, and probably the child's father, were of East Asian ethnicity.

CCTV image of two people detectives would like to speak to in connection with the murder of a newborn (Image: Hampshire Police/PA Wire)

He said police were considering that either the mother or someone else was responsible for the injuries suffered.

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He said: "Initially when the investigation was launched we were concerned regarding the health of the mother, so there were lots of inquiries undertaken with local partners, NHS and local communities in order to identify the mother which were unsuccessful.

"We have carried out lots of inquiries since then including pathology, scientific work regarding the baby's ancestry and what was established fairly early on was the baby's death was a result of deliberate head injuries and as such we launched a murder inquiry.

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"We still would like to identify the mother and provide some support because it takes an awful lot for a mother to give birth to a child to then either kill the baby or have the baby taken away from her and killed immediately afterwards."

The baby, who was killed within about six hours of birth, was found in some bushes inside Manor Park in Aldershot, Hampshire (Image: Hampshire Police/PA Wire)

Walking past 10 times

Asking for the public's help, Mr Storey said: "We have a couple walking past the birth scene between 11:30pm and 12:30am and they don't just walk past once, they walk past 10 times and we strongly believe they may be connected with the birth and subsequent murder and we are appealing for witnesses or information to identify those two persons.

"We are also launching some significant house-to-house inquiries in and around Manor Park to try to identify witnesses or people who have knowledge of the murder."

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